


Idiots Part IX

by JadeMoon



Series: Idiots [9]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, F/M, Fear, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, Lust, Misunderstandings, Multi, Polyamory Negotiations, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 10:46:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19462384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeMoon/pseuds/JadeMoon
Summary: Agent Thirteen isn't new to SHIELD, she's been with them for more than half her life. She's made every effort to NOT make friends because people suck and they stab you in the back the first chance they get. She's been quite successful until she gets stationed at the Avenger's compound. There, things start to unravel for her and she finds herself breaking her own rules. Rules she put in place to protect herself. She's caught off guard by the one and only Captain Rogers and things just spiral from there.They're both idiots. You'll see. Then we may add a third idiot, but Barnes is by far the brightest of the three.





	Idiots Part IX

Hayley slams the door to her quarters and then collapses to the floor in tears. What the flying motherfuck was she thinking? Fucking Bucky? Oh Steve’s going to looove that. What better way for the two super soldiers to go to war with each other. 

Poor Bucky. This wasn’t what she wanted. It is, actually. She did want to sleep with him and she’s not disappointed, but not like this. Not...oh god...what the fuck about Steve? He threatened to beat the shit out of Bucky because Hayley slept behind him to keep him warm. How’s he going to take this?

He’s going to hate her. That’s how he’s going to take it. He’s going to look at her in repulsion and loathing. He’s going to despise her and now so will Bucky because she’s a stupid whore. 

And Bucky’s threat not to run or they’ll find her. Jesus Christ...she never would have thought he’d be like that. Not like Lannister. 

_You can’t run forever, Harlot._

Bucky who she thought was sweet and charming and is so full of his own issues...is just like Lannister. Which means Steve is, too. They’ll make her pay for what she did. They’ll make her pay dearly. 

Hayley can barely breathe as she starts packing basic necessities. She’s never been more terrified in her life than right now. Lannister was one thing. This is Captain America and the Winter Soldier. This isn’t a fucking joke anymore. They _will_ hurt her. 

But only if they find her.

She dismantles the SHIELD priority cell phone and runs the smaller pieces through the garbage disposal. She takes the bank card she was issued to get her pay and her bag and she slinks out of her quarters. Her next stop is an ATM.

============================================================================

“You want to talk to me now, Buck? Tell me what’s had you so edgy and skittish around me this week? I know it’s not the mission. It’s over. You’re still--”

“Hayley and I slept together.”

Steve sits down heavily in the chair in the hotel room. Buck isn’t looking at him. He’s dismantling his sidearm. He hasn’t actually looked Steve in the eye since he arrived to replace Sam.

“Slept together. Next to each other?”

“No, Steve,” Bucky says quietly, “we fucked.”

Bucky’s voice is thick with emotion. Steve’s not sure he’s hearing this right. Or maybe he’s not processing what he’s hearing right. 

“Buck…”

Bucky turns around and Steve can see the fear on his friend’s face. 

“I don’t regret it, Steve. I don’t regret...this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. I don’t know how the fuck I thought it would work, but it wasn’t like this.”

“So...okay…” Steve pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath. Jealousy and anger are vying for dominance right now. What he needs is patience and calmness. 

Bucky’s fists are clenched and he looks like he’s waiting for Steve to deck him. 

“Steve, I’m sorry it happened like this.”

“She...and you...okay…I’m not mad. Much. I’m confused. What the fuck happened?”

Bucky speaks quickly, telling Steve about the party and how he had overheard some jerks talking about him and had a massive anxiety attack. 

“She came after me to make sure I was okay. You weren’t there. You can’t always be there, I know. I didn’t know what to do and she was just there.”

“She helped you.”

“She made me laugh. She told me that she had to convince me in Russian that you and Dot were at my apartment waiting for me to come home when I was in that fever delirium.”

“Dot?”

“Redhead I spent our money trying to win a stuffed animal for.”

“Jesus Christ, Buck, Dot?”

“I don’t know. She asked me who the fuck Dot was and hearing her tell the story was...it was what I needed to get out of that funk. That and her telling me that she’s sorry and she can’t keep ignoring us because she cares about us.”

“She admitted to it finally?” Steve asks. This is all that matters now. She admitted she has feelings for them. This is what’s important.

“She admitted that she cares and that she misses us. You were mentioned by name. It’s not one sided, but Steve...Steve, I’m sorry. You’ve got every right to be pissed off at me and if you slug me I deserve it--”

“Shut up. I’m not going to hit you. We talked about this, remember? How am I going to feel if you sleep with her and vice versa. Well here we are, Buck.”

“Steve…” 

Bucky’s so nervous he’s shaking. Steve knows he’s genuinely afraid that this is going to ruin their friendship. And truth be told, Steve was concerned about this, too, if the situation had been reversed. 

“I’m not entirely pissed off, Buck. Please calm down. I’m not going to hit you. I’m not going to flip shit. I’m not going to throw myself out of a plane without a parachute.”

“What about out of a five story building?”

“You’re an asshole.”

There’s a smirk forming on Buck’s lips finally. 

“Don’t be pissed at her, either, Steve. Be pissed at me if you have to be--”

“I’m not pissed at either of you. It happened. I can’t make it unhappen,” he says tiredly. 

Bucky sits down on the bed and hangs his head. Steve’s not mad. Not really. Jealous a little, but given the details of what happened and the fact that Buck got to see her mostly undressed...would he have acted any differently? Probably not.

“How was it?”

Bucky lifts his head.

“How was what?”

Steve stares at him waiting for the question to sink in.

“Considering this is my third time getting laid--”

“Bullshit!” Steve yells and then laughs at the astonished look on Bucky’s face. 

“No bullshit. How the hell often did you think I was getting laid?” Bucky demands.

“As good as you were with the ladies I figured you were at least getting handjobs in inappropriate places,” Steve tells him. 

“That’s different.”

Steve barks out a laugh. 

“Oh! So that’s what you and that petite blonde were doing for twenty minutes at the back of the movie theater!”

The red on Bucky’s face makes Steve laugh more.

“Busted. So goddamn dirty. Convincing those girls to do that shit,” Steve chides him. “I’m telling Hayley.”

The humor fades from Bucky’s face instantly. 

“She ran, Steve. She left before I could stop her because she didn’t want there to be another fight. She put the blame on herself and panicked.”

“Ran where?”

“Back to her quarters I guess.”

“She’s scared. Which is my fault for acting like a fucking asshole in the first place. But you said she missed us and she cares about us?”

“Those were her words, but--”

“We’ll talk to her when we get back. We can try and bring up the polyamory thing again. We can show her there’s no harm in what’s been done and that we can make this work.”

Steve is convincing himself of this as much as he’s trying to convince Bucky. This will work. He can be calm about this. They’ll each have firsts with her. Bucky got to dance with her and actually get into her panties, but Steve paved the way for them both and he’s slept next to her, and she’s held him through a nightmare and it would only be a matter of time before he’d get to find out how wet she gets from his touch. 

“You’re sure about this?” Bucky asks. 

“Aren’t you?”

“I want to do this, Steve. I just don’t want there to be any hard feelings or fighting.”

“Are we fighting?”

“We are not.”

“There you go.”

Bucky looks unconvinced.

“How bad was she when she left?” Steve asks. 

“Near tears.”

Steve gets out his phone.

“We can’t call her till we’re out of this shithole,” Bucky reminds him. Steve grunts. 

“Think you could whip up another designer meal for her, Buck?”

============================================================================

Steve and Bucky have everything planned out - again - by the time they get back to the compound. They’re going to go see Hayley and they’re going to sit down and talk to her and tell her how they feel and that she doesn’t have to choose because they’re willing to work this out. Because they both want her. They both like her. In Steve’s case he knows he’s in love with her. If he had to wager a guess he’d say Bucky isn’t that far off either. 

As soon as they get off the jet Natasha is waiting for them and she doesn’t look happy.

“Have either of you seen or heard from Hayley?”

“No why? What’s going on?” Bucky demands. 

“She’s gone. Last known location was at Grand Central Station to clear out her bank account. She’s off the goddamn grid.”

Steve’s heart sinks. This can’t be happening.

“This is my fault," Bucky says heavily. 

“What?” Steve asks. 

“How do you figure?” Natasha asks him. 

Bucky looks at Steve and shakes his head. 

“I told her - before she ran out - that no matter where she went we would find her,” Bucky says quietly. 

“You told her what?” Natasha snaps. “The girl who is recovering from being beaten down, stalked, stabbed--”

“Enough, Nat!” Steve yells. “You know damn well Buck didn’t intend for it to be understood like that.”

“I didn’t. I wanted her to know that we’re not going to let her suffer alone and that she’s got us to count on,” Bucky states defiantly. Natasha rolls her eyes. 

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Maybe that’s not what you meant but that’s how it was taken. Goddammit. Wait...she was talking to you?”

“She came back to my place after we left Tony’s party.”

Natasha’s eyes get huge. She looks at Steve like she’s expecting to see fists start flying. 

“I already know, Nat. He told me,” Steve tells her. 

“There’s more to this story isn’t there?” she asks. Steve shrugs. He’s not about to divulge what Bucky told him. He doubts Bucky’s going to give Nat any additional info. 

“There is, but that’s not important,” Bucky tells her. 

“No? Maybe it’ll tell us why she ran,” Nat fires back.

“I _know_ why she ran, Natasha,” Bucky growls. “The whole fucking unit doesn’t need to know, too.”

“That’s all I needed to hear. And you’re okay with this? You two aren’t going to go full alpha male smackdown again?”

“I’m aware of what happened and neither of us is bleeding so I think we’re okay, Nat. Jesus Christ, we’re adults not five year old boys.”

“Sure you are. Look, you know her better than anyone. Fury is saying if she left than she left because she’s done. I don’t think that’s the case based on what you two have somewhat divulged. Where do you think she went?”

“I don’t know,” Steve says tiredly. “Where does an agent on the run go when she’s scared?”

“We could ask Gavanaugh,” Bucky says after a few moments. Steve rubs his chin. Hayley never talked about herself. Ever. She’s always been a closed book. 

“It’s worth a shot,” Steve says. He’s already dialing the good doctor’s number as he speaks. 

“Hello, Captain Rogers.”

“I need your help, Doc.”

“Of course. What’s wrong?”

“Hayley vanished. I need to know if she would have given you any clues as to where she would go.”

Silence. Bucky and Natasha are trying to listen in. 

Gavanaugh sighs heavily. 

“Is she on leave, Captain Rogers?”

“No. She ran. There was...she and Bucky had a talk and things were misconstrued. Badly.”

“Sergeant Barnes doesn’t know where she is, either?”

“No. That’s why I’m calling you.” Steve’s starting to get flustered. He knows Gavanaugh has to protect Hayley’s privacy but come the fuck on…

“Agent Stone made mention once of going to the beach. That’s all I can give you, Captain Rogers. If she left of her own accord--”

“She left because she’s scared and confused, Gavanaugh,” Bucky says loudly enough for her to hear. “She left because she’s still convinced we’re going to hurt her.”

“She didn’t leave because she wanted to,” Steve adds, “she left because she felt that was her only recourse.”

More silence.

“Try Seagrass Bay in Fiji.”

“Thank you! Thank you, Doctor Gavanaugh,” Steve says.

“Don’t waste time. The longer you wait the further away she gets.”

Gavanaugh hangs up. 

“Fiji. Let’s go,” Bucky says walking back to the jet.

“I’ll take care of things here. Wanda will help. Get her back. Don’t screw this up. We need her - beyond what you two are after with her,” Natasha states. 

“We’ll bring her home, Nat.”

“No bullshit, Steve. If she’s not down for this threesome shit with you two, don’t push her. Tell her she’s needed here or just fucking call me and I’ll tell her.”

Steve nods but he’s not listening. He’s working out how to find Hayley and tell her once and for all this is how he feels. This time he has to be able to convince her that she’s loved and no one here will hurt her. 

============================================================================

Bucky drums his fingers nervously trying to come up with a way to not only apologize to Hayley for saying something so fucking stupid but to convince her that he may be in love with her. And that he and Steve won’t fight and they really do have her best interests at heart. They just want their girl home so they can dote on her and love her. He never meant to scare her. He didn’t mean for her to take what he said that way. He only wanted her to know that they’d always be there. 

Now she’s run off. Not asked to be reassigned, she actually ran off. 

He doesn’t know if he should regret sleeping with her. He doesn’t want to. He enjoyed it. All of it. Being intimate with her was...it was everything to him. Having fantasized about her for so long and then to have those fantasies fulfilled (some of them at least) was a dream come true. He got to experience that warmth that Steve’s gotten. He doesn’t want to lose that. He wants her to know how he feels, how much he likes her. 

No. He doesn’t like her. He loves her. The constant longing for her. The heartache when she’s not close by. The heartache when she is and she won’t talk to him. The desire to have some kind of physical contact with her at all times, even if it’s just to have his arm around her. Wanting to protect her. Wanting to just be near her. 

“Buck?”

“Hmm?”

“I was thinking of getting a bigger place. Outside of the compound. For the three of us.”

“Jumping the gun a little aren’t we?”

“Thinking positive,” Steve corrects him. “I was thinking we could get a place close by to the compound but still allow us to be alone. No FRIDAY, no recruits or agents--”

“Just the three of us,” Bucky says finishing Steve’s thought. “Two bedrooms? Three?”

“Two. I don’t know. Three? So if we need time apart we each have our own room?”

“It would be more private. That’s a fucking luxury we don’t get now.”

“A new start for the three of us.”

“A new start,” Bucky repeats. He likes the sound of that. A lot. 

“We’re coming up on Fiji now. Jesus Christ I hope she’s here,” Steve mumbles. Bucky says a silent prayer that she is and that they find her. 

============================================================================

Hayley sits on the beach watching the waves roll lazily against the sand. The beach is private, only accessible by horseback or by taking a boat and then swimming to shore. She swam. The boat to pick her up isn’t due back for several hours. Not that she cares. Her soul aches, her heart is broken and she’s got no one to blame for this bullshit but herself. She should have stayed away from the super soldiers. Far, far away. 

She also knows that’s a crock of shit because there was no way in heaven or hell she would have been able to turn her back on Bucky at the party. Not in the condition he was in. Or been able to ignore Steve when he had that massive headache. 

She is, in a word, fucked.

She sees a couple of speed boats heading toward the island. This isn’t her pick up and they don’t look like tourist boats. 

The hair on the back of her neck stands on end and Hayley retreats back from the beach towards the lush trees and foliage. 

The boats find passage and pull up onto the beach and the men on board begin to unload crates. Gun runners. Fucking gun runners. Of course. Why not?

She slinks further back into the trees. She’s unarmed and alone and a female. The odds are stacked against her. Time to find an alternate route out of here. 

============================================================================

Bucky and Steve are on horseback following a man who, if Steve had to guess, is older than he is. The guy in the village said he’d seen Hayley but insisted that the boats weren’t going out anymore. When Bucky pressed him about how Hayley would get back if she took a goddamn boat out the guy had shrugged and simply repeated no more boats tonight. 

That was enough to set both men off. She’s not on the tourist trap private island. She’s on a different one. One that commercial tourists don’t go to.

“Something’s not right,” Bucky mutters as they plod through the trees at a painfully slow pace. 

“I know. I know,” Steve says. There’s something in the air that isn’t sitting right. 

“Can we go faster?” Bucky calls to the older than god looking man in front of them.

“Horses go at their own pace,” he calls back. 

“That’s bullshit,” Bucky says bluntly. 

“Yeah, but the sun is setting and we don’t know where the fuck we’re going,” Steve reminds him. Bucky growls. 

The old man halts his horse suddenly and holds up his hand to stop them. 

They can hear voices, lots of yelling, all the voices are male. 

“We need to go back. Quickly,” the old man tells them. He turns his horse and reaches for the reigns on Steve’s horse to do the same. 

“No. Our friend is out here and we need to find her,” Bucky says defiantly. 

“She will be dead if they catch her. You want to die too?” the old man asks. 

“We’re not leaving without her,” Steve tells him. The old man shakes his head. 

“Bad men up there. They will kill you. We should go. Better to lose one life than three.”

“We aren’t losing anyone,” Bucky snaps. The old man shakes his head.

“Follow the trail back. Good luck with your friend. Stubborn, stupid Americans,” the old man says. He spurs the horse into a gallop and rides off. Bucky and Steve are now on their own with “bad men” and their missing girl. 

“Just once I’d like to have something go right,” Bucky mumbles. “Just once.”

“What did you used to tell me? Anything worth having is worth fighting for?”

“I’m going to kick your ass when we get home,” Bucky growls. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve grumbles. He’s trying to listen to the “bad guys”. He glances at Bucky and they get off the horses. Bucky ties the reins to a nearby tree and the two of them creep closer to get a better look at what’s going on. 

============================================================================

Hayley sees movement to her far left. The gun runners are in front of her and she’s had eyes on all of them since they pulled ashore. Who the fuck…

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” she hisses quietly. It’s the super soldiers. Have they come to try and collect her? How the fuck did they find her?

She’s so focused on them she doesn’t notice that she’s been spotted. She’s got guns and knives pointed at her suddenly and some foul smelling goon is screaming at her in what sounds like Hindi. She doesn’t speak Hindi. If she survives that’ll be next on her list. 

They yank her up by her hair and drag her to the beach where the others are. Mouths drop and lascivious looks abound. The general mumblings and the fact that the group is getting closer means Hayley’s body is about to be abused in the worst way. 

The foul one starts spouting shit off again. His breath is so rank it makes her gag. She’s backhanded and she responds with a hard right to his jaw. She now has a knife at her throat, at least two guns jabbed into her ribs and one pointed at her stomach. There’s a knife cutting the straps of her bikini top off while her hands are bound behind her back. She’s being groped. Nasty, calloused hands fondle her exposed breasts while more hands try and peel her shorts off. 

She hears the distinct sound of a safety being clicked off and that draws her captors attention away. She knows who it is. They’ve come to reclaim what they think is theirs. Hayley will never be free. 

Shots are fired and her current captors start dropping like flies. She knows that’s Barnes. Rogers doesn’t use guns. 

Her captors begin to scream and she takes the opportunity to bash the one holding her hands in the face with her head. He wails loudly and she’s able to pull her hands free. She disarms him and sees that Rogers is about to be shot. She takes the knife and throws it.

============================================================================

Steve turns around just as Bucky yells for him to get down. One of the gun runners was aiming for him and then suddenly he’s face first in the sand, a large knife protruding from his back. Hayley is free and very exposed. Bucky has subdued most of the others and scared the rest. They’ve dropped their weapons and are scurrying back to the boats. 

“Hayley,” Steve says pulling his shirt off to give to her. She backs up a few paces and covers herself with her arms. 

Bucky seats one of the guns in the back of his jeans and Steve sees him put his hands out to Hayley. 

She’s not having it. 

“Baby, we aren’t going to hurt you,” Steve promises. “We came to talk. There’s no reason to run or be afraid--”

“Buck,” she yells and points behind them. Bucky moves with trained fluidness, spins around, pulls the piece and fires at the one remaining gun runner stupid enough to try and attack them. Steve looks away as the body crumples to the ground, a fatal headshot wound the cause of his demise. Bucky’s lethality is still something he’s getting used to. It only appears when someone Buck cares about is in danger. Wanda calls it _murder mode_ for good reason. 

There’s no one left on the beach but them now. No one alive. 

“Hayley, you’re bleeding,” Steve says taking a small step closer to her. He can see the trickle of blood running down her throat and more on her shoulder where they’d cut her trying to get her top off. 

“We need to get out of here, doll. Those assholes will be back with reinforcements shortly--”

“Then go,” she says coldly.

“We’re not leaving you here alone, Hails. Not yet. We just came to talk. We came to find you and to talk about what happened,” Steve tries to explain. 

She looks at Bucky and he nods his head.

“He knows. I told him.”

She backs up more. Steve is trying to find a way to not scare her but that seems to be all the two of them are doing. 

“We aren’t fighting, Hails. We aren’t arguing. Nobody got hurt. And nobody wants to hurt you. Please, put this on,” he begs and tries to hand her his shirt. She doesn’t move. 

“Buck…” Steve’s at a loss right now. 

“I told him what happened, kitten. I told him about us and I don’t regret what we did, Hayley, and I don’t want you to regret it either. We can work this out, the three of us. But this isn’t the place to talk about this. We have to go.”

“Please, take the shirt. We’ll go back to town and we’ll talk. We’ll just talk and if you don’t agree, if you don’t like it, if it’s not what you want and you want to be left alone here or wherever…” Steve swallows trying to find enough spit to finish what he’s about to say. “If you want to go, we won’t stop you, we won’t follow you. We’ll walk away and leave you alone.”

============================================================================

Hayley looks from Steve to Bucky and back again. Bucky is right, they _are_ running out of time. The gun runners will be back in force here soon. Standing her topless listening to Steve and Bucky plead with her to give them a chance to explain isn’t buying them any more time. 

“No tricks? No bullshit? You say your piece and I can go. You won’t follow me? You won’t send anyone else after me?” she asks. She doubts they’ll be honest. 

“No tricks, doll. No bullshit. But...at least listen. Please,” Bucky implores. This is the guy that just killed a handful of people to save her. The other one is trying to get her to cover up. If they weren’t interested in her safety would they be trying to get her out of here? Trying to cover her up instead of stripping her and…

Hayley is confused and tired and just...she’s done. Being in love is the most painful thing she’s ever had to endure. 

“Please, put this on, babydoll. Please,” Steve begs. He takes another cautious step closer to her, holding out his shirt for her to take. 

“No tricks?” she asks again.

“No tricks,” Steve promises. “But we have to go.”

She takes his shirt and pulls it on. She ties the bottom off into a knot so she’s not entirely swimming in it. 

“Boats. We have to move,” Bucky says looking over his shoulder. Hayley can see them in the distance, small specs on the horizon, but there’s more than two this time and she knows damn well they’ll be armed to the teeth when they get here. 

Steve extends his hand to her as does Bucky. They want her to trust them. They made a promise. Let’s see how good they are at honoring it.

“Let’s just go,” she tells them. 

“This way,” Steve says leading them back into the trees. 

“You’re going to need stitches, doll,” Bucky says softly. He’s referring to the cut on her shoulder. It’s still bleeding and turning Steve’s pale blue shirt a deep crimson. Hayley doesn’t care. It’s just another scar.

“Who the fuck is that?” Hayley demands when she sees the old coot near two other horses.

“You came back?” Steve asks. She can hear how happy he is to see the old man. 

“Bad juju leaving Captain America behind.”

“Bad juju,” Bucky and Hayley repeat together. Bucky gives her that goddamn grin that makes her heart beat faster. She is so fucked right now. 

“You find your friend? She hurt.”

“We need to get out of here. They’re coming back with more men,” Steve tells the old guy. He pales.

“No good. No good. Let’s go,” he says, pointing to the horses.

“Ride with Steve, doll. His horse isn’t a throwback from the 1800s,” Bucky tells her. Steve is up on his horse and reaching for Hayley. She feels strong hands around her waist and she’s being lifted up. She straddles the horse and puts her arms around Steve’s midsection. He puts his hand over hers and leans back. 

“Hang on, babydoll. Don’t let go. Don’t let me go,” he whispers. She knows there’s more to it than her just holding on as they ride. She can hear it in his voice and it pulls at her heart. 

“We ride fast. You keep up,” the old man says as he spurs his horse to a gallop. Steve follows suit and they take off behind the old man. Hayley looks over her shoulder to check on Bucky. He’s following. He gives her a nod and looks over his shoulder. She knows he’s checking to make sure they aren’t being followed. 

It takes almost twenty minutes to get back to the little village. The old man keeps mumbling about trouble and shoos them out of the stables as soon as they’re off the horses. 

“We need to call Fury and get people in here to clean this up,” Hayley says before they go any further. “These people don’t need this shit.”

“Agreed. Where are you staying? We can grab your stuff and head back to the main island,” Bucky offers. 

“Just up the block a ways,” she says leading them down the street. They walk on either side of her, which is garnering looks from people. She takes Bucky’s arm and puts it around her waist, resting his hand just above her ass. She takes Steve’s hand and puts it on her ass. She puts her arms around them and pulls them closer. Drunk tourists with a hooker. That's all these people will see.

“Act like we’re drunk and we’re having a good time.”

Smiles on both their faces, fake giggles, Steve squeezes her ass, she smacks his and he jumps, Bucky actually laughs...if it weren’t for the trouble they were in Hayley might actually enjoy this.

They get back to the shanty little room she’s rented and once inside, Bucky does a full sweep of the room to make sure it’s secure. 

“Check her shoulder,” he tells Steve while he searches the lights and everything else. She knows what he’s doing, she did it when she arrived. But since she’s been gone for several hours, who knows what the hell may have transpired in that time. 

“Let me see, Hails,” Steve says putting his hands on her hips and pulling her closer. 

“I ruined your shirt, Captain--”

“Steve. Don’t start this shit again, Hails. I don’t care what happens from this point forward, you call me Steve.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Hayley--”

“Check her shoulder,” Bucky says again, more firmly than before. 

“You’re going to have to take off the shirt,” Steve says apologetically. 

“Since everyone in here has seen my tits I guess it doesn’t matter,” she says pulling she shirt off. It sticks to her wounded shoulder and she hisses in pain. 

“Easy, easy,” Steve whispers as he helps pull it free. 

“May as well take your shirt off, too,” she tells Bucky. There’s that shy grin and then he’s stripping out of his shirt. 

“There’s shit in it. I can’t tell if it’s sand or what it is,” Steve mutters. “Do you have any of your gear, baby?”

“Bucky’s got it.”

Bucky brings her bag to her and she pulls out the small first aid kit she has. Steve begins to pick through it while Bucky examines her shoulder. Neither of them have done more than a passing glance at her tits since she took off her shirt. They seem to be more concerned with the cut on her shoulder. If they were out to hurt her would they be so focused on her wound? Lannister never cared if she was hurt or if anyone on the team was hurt. He just wanted what he wanted when he wanted it. 

Steve finds what he’s after and starts laying things out to close her wound. 

“That sand is in there pretty deep. Is there a shower in here, kitten?”

“One in the hall. Communal bathrooms,” she replies. She sees Bucky glance worriedly at Steve. He’s afraid it’s going to get infected and he wants to rinse the wound out. 

Steve drags his hand down his face. 

“Take her, I’ll call in and let Natasha know we need backup here.”

“I can shower on my own, thanks,” Hayley says angrily. Both men step back.

“I never said you couldn’t, babydoll. I just...I want Bucky with you in case we get visitors, that’s all. I don’t want you to be alone.”

“I’ll call Nat. I can talk to her in something other than English and Russian. Hopefully no one picks up on it,” Bucky says to Steve. Then turning to Hayley he says, “Hails, that needs to be cleaned out and you can’t see it. We’re not trying to hurt you, kitten, I promise.”

“I don’t want empty promises from either of you. Just say whatever it is you were going to say. I can clean this out myself without exposing more of my body to either of you.”

“I was suggesting taking you to the bathroom and just rinsing it out in the sink, Hayley. Not having you strip completely,” Steve says. He sounds miffed that she would think that’s where he was going with this. She’s miffed that it isn’t. 

“Talk,” she says getting the alcohol wipes from Steve’s hands. She tears open a few and starts to scrub the wound. It burns like a motherfucker. 

“Jesus Christ,” Steve growls. “Stop. At least let one of us do this while we talk. You’re going to drive the sand in deeper,” he says taking the alcohol from her. He brushes her hair back and starts to clean around the wound, being incredibly gently. Bucky pulls put a pair of tweezers and then shines the small flashlight Hayley has onto her wound. 

“This is going to hurt, babydoll. I’m sorry,” Steve says apologetically as he begins to pull the grains of sand out. 

“Talk,” she growls through clenched teeth. 

They look at each other. Bucky takes a deep breath. 

“I told him what happened between us, Hails. I told him that you and I slept together and that I don’t regret doing it. You don’t regret it...do you?”

“Stay on track, Buck,” Steve tells him. Hayley gasps and nearly jumps out of the chair as the tweezers dig deeper. 

“Sorry! I’m sorry, baby! Goddammit!” Steve gripes. “I’m really not trying to hurt you.”

“I don’t want you to regret what we did, Hayley. I told Steve. He wasn’t pissed, he didn’t try to fight with me. Nothing happened. I didn’t want you to run, kitten. I didn’t want you to panic. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Bucky tells her. He’s basically repeating what he said the night this happened. How is she supposed to believe that nothing has changed? Better yet, how can she trust that these two aren’t going to hurt her as some kind of revenge thing?

“Give me her iodine,” Steve says to Bucky. She feels him swabbing her shoulder, again with the utmost delicacy and care. These conflicting thoughts and feelings are going to drive her insane. She wants to believe that they care, but how can she? How can she trust them?

“You threatened to hunt me down and you did,” she says coldly. The sadness in Bucky’s eyes hurts her - physically hurts her. 

“I didn’t mean for it to come out that way, Hayley. After I said it I realized how fucking stupid that was. I only wanted you to know that we weren’t going to abandon you and we’d be here no matter what.”

“But here you two are.”

“Because, Hayley,” Steve says as he threads the hook, “we care about you. We care about you too much to let you run off thinking that _no one_ cares about you and that you’re alone. We aren’t here to hurt you or drag you back. We aren’t here to play games--”

“ _Why are you here_ ? _”_ she asks tensley. 

Steve sighs and steps in front of her. He drops to his knees and looks into her eyes. 

“Because I love you. I should have told you months ago. Instead I have royally fucked things up for the three of us. Instead of acting like a goddamn adult I had a fit and scared you and Buck. I will never forgive myself for that. You don’t have to choose, Hayley. I love you and you can see how stupid he is about you.”

“Stupid. Fuck you,” Bucky growls at Steve. Bucky looks at Hayley and runs his fingers over her jaw. “I’m lost without you, doll. I meant what I said about wanting to kiss you for the longest time. It scares me how easily I fell for you. It scares me how open I can be with you. But I don’t want to change that. I don’t want to lose that.”

“We talked about this, Hails. He and I. We talked about doing a polyamorous relationship with you. We’ve tried to talk to you about it, but something comes up or something happens--”

“That’s not your fault, either, doll,” Bucky interjects. 

“It’s not anyone’s fault,” Steve continues. “It’s just how things seem to work out. There’s no right time or place for it and now here we are, on some little island, with you topless and bleeding, telling you how we feel about you.”

“We love you, Hayley. It’s not a line. It’s not…” Bucky falters.

“It’s real. No bullshit, babydoll,” Steve tells her. 

Hayley is at a loss. What the hell do you say to a confession like this? Is this real? Is this actually happening?

They said they love her.

“I can’t breathe,” she whimpers. The room is spinning and swaying and swirling and going gray.

“Nope. Come on, sit up. That a girl. Look at me. You’re okay,” Bucky says holding her face in his hands. 

“We’ve got you, babydoll. We’ve got you. Just breathe nice and slow,” Steve instructs. It’s too much to handle and Hayley gives into the dove gray swirls that surround her.

============================================================================

“Get her on the bed, Steve.”

“I’ve got her. I’ve got her.”

Bucky pulls the covers back and Steve lays Hayley down gently. Her shoulder is still bleeding and that’s their next priority. 

“Help me turn her on her side, Steve. We have to stitch that.”

“Easy, easy does it,” Steve says as they roll her gently. She’s completely out. Bucky’s scared that maybe there’s something that got into her bloodstream from the cuts. He lifts her chin and looks at her neck. This is just a scratch, but he’s going to clean that once Steve is done suturing her shut. 

“Hold her so she doesn’t roll back, Buck,” Steve instructs. Bucky sits on the bed and holds onto his girl while Steve closes her wound. 

“She’s got gauze and tape in there. Maybe butterfly it shut too? So we don’t have a repeat of the last time she had stitches,” Bucky suggests, referring to when her stitches had popped from the injury to her head. Pretty thing still has the scar from that. 

“Yup,” Steve says coming back to the bed with the supplies. He butterflies wound and then covers it with a gauze pad and some tape. Bucky lets her roll onto her back and Steve grabs his shirt and covers her up so she’s not exposed any more. 

“Not quite what I was expecting,” Steve admits sheepishly. 

“No. But I’m worried that this was caused by something getting into her bloodstream. Hand me an iodine pack so I can clean this, too,” Bucky says pointing to the scratch on her neck. Steve grabs one and tosses it to him. 

“We cleaned it out pretty well, Buck. We just have to wait and see what happens when she wakes up.”

“Hand me her bag. I need to call Natasha. This is the last time we go running without our gear, Steve.”

“Agreed.”

Bucky places a call to Natasha, telling her what happened as quickly as he can. She promises backup is on the way. 

“Where is Hayley?” she asks in Chinese. They’ve been moving between languages to make sure no one understands what the hell they’re talking about. 

“She’s here with us. She got a pretty deep knife gash. Steve stitched her shut, but she fainted--”

“Is she sick? Is it poisoned? What color are her gums?” Natasha fires off in Portuguese. 

“Lift her lip and check her gums, Steve.”

Steve does.

“Pale pink.”

“Okay, how pale? Closer to white?”

“No,” Bucky says looking at them, “just a light pink. She’s not splotchy and there are no lines spreading out from the wound. She’s not feverish.”

“Is she pale?”

“A little.”

“Do either of you know if she’s on the rag?”

“She’s on birth control,” Bucky says failing to understand what the fuck this has to do with anything. Steve gives him a wide eyed look. 

“If she’s menstruating that could explain the gums and the pale color. Just because she’s on birth control doesn’t mean she can’t bleed, Barnes. Oh god...I never thought I’d have to explain this to someone…”

“Just stop. She’s alright. If she isn’t you said backup is on it’s way, make sure you bring medical with you.”

“Bring medical where?” Hayley asks groggily. 

“She’s awake, Nat. How long?”

“ETA is about two hours. I’m kicking your asses for leaving your gear on the jet and leaving the jet god knows where.”

“Yes, mistress.”

“Stay put till we get there.”

“We? You’re coming?”

“Consider it clean up detail for when I give Fury the reason there was four of us on fucking Fiji.”

Bucky hangs up and looks over at Hayley. She _is_ pale. Shit. 

“How do you feel, babydoll?” Steve asks her. He sits next to her on the bed as Bucky heads towards them. 

“Like I passed out. What the fuck…” her eyes clear up and she touches her shoulder. She realizes she’s topless and hugs Steve’s shirt to her chest. 

“You want to put that on?” Bucky asks, “or do you want something from your bag?”

“My bag. Sweet fucking Christ I wasn’t dreaming was I?”

Steve shakes his head no.

“No, Hails. You weren’t dreaming. You got cut by a gun runner--”

“And you two stitched me back up after…” her brow furrows. Bucky pulls a shirt from her bag and she pulls it on. 

“After we told you how we felt,” he says sitting next to her. “We also promised that if you wanted to go, if you wanted to be alone, that we would honor that. You’ve got just under two hours till Natasha arrives to decide what you want to do, doll. We won’t stop you.”

He loathes the fact that he can say those words to her and keep his voice calm. He wants to convince her that they love her and that this can work. He wants to cradle her in his arms and promise her the moon and stars if she’ll just give them a chance. 

“What about Sharon?”

“What about Sharon?” Steve asks. He brushes a strand of her hair from her face as he speaks. 

“I don’t think she’s going to be into sharing you with someone like me--”

“Stop. Stop right there,” Bucky says cutting her off. “Don’t start that shit. There’s not a goddamn thing wrong with you.”

She hangs her head for a moment. Steve gives him a harsh look. Bucky shakes his head at him. He’s not going to let Hayley sit here and talk shit about herself. He can’t and he won’t. 

“There is nothing between Sharon and I, Hayley. There hasn’t been for a long time. Long before I met you. I love you, babydoll. Not her.”

“She harasses him now and then, but Sharon isn’t the one he sketches constantly. That’s you, kitten,” Bucky adds. “All we want is you.”

============================================================================

Hayley is trying to decide if she’s dreaming or if she’s actually awake. They’ve confessed their feelings. Steve flat out telling her that he loves her. Bucky doing something very similar but without those exact words. She’s in one piece, her shoulder hurts, but that’s not their fault. They tended to her wound, Bucky called Natasha for backup…

“I didn’t mean to scare you with what I said in my room, Hayley,” Bucky says softly. “I’m not going to hurt you. Steve isn’t going to hurt you. We aren’t going to...Hayley we love you…”

“How do you know this isn’t just some phase with you two?” she asks. She refuses to look at either of them right now. She can’t. She’s afraid to.

“I’ve known since the night I had the headache,” Steve tells her. “I just didn’t want to admit to it.”

“I’m not in the market for passing fancies, doll. Hell, I wasn’t even in the market for anyone until I crossed paths with you,” Bucky says.

“Which explains why he hid behind Sam that night we were watching _Prometheus_ in the common room,” Steve jokes. Hayley remembers how bashful Bucky had been and it makes her smile a little.

“I was worried we had interrupted something. You know, since you weren’t able to find your voice when Wanda introduced you to her,” Bucky fires back. Hayley bursts out laughing. It’s a never ending line of buses these two throw each other under. She looks up and the two of them are smiling, but they’re tired and hurt and…

“We’ve missed you, baby. We’ve missed you so much. I know this is hard for you, but I swear we aren’t here to hurt you, we aren’t here to make you do anything you don’t want to do. We just...we just want you to know how we feel,” Steve says softly. 

“And maybe you’ll give us a chance to show you that. We can work this out. You wouldn’t have to choose, doll. We know about each other, we’re okay with this. We _want_ this, but only if you do.”

They’re asking for a polyamorous relationship with her. They want to show her that they love her, not just tell her. Hayley’s head is muddled, she can’t think clearly. Her heart, however, has an answer.

“How does this work?” she asks. It’s like walking a tightrope with no net. 

The guys exchange a quick glance. 

“How ever you want it to?” Bucky asks. Steve seems even less sure. So, they’ve agreed to the polyamory but not to the logistics. 

“Are you...agreeing to this, babydoll?” Steve asks after a moment. He’s been studying her intently to the point Hayley had to drop her eyes. Is she agreeing to this? 

“Hayley?” Bucky moves closer as he speaks her name, taking her hand and holding it in his own. 

Do this and she runs the risk of having her heart broken so badly she’ll never recover and most likely never survive. Reject them and she breaks her own heart as well as theirs (seemingly). Would it hurt to try and trust them? To give these two the chance they are so desperately begging for? They followed her to Fiji to apologize and tell her they loved her. She wouldn’t have to choose one over the other, she could love them both...right? 

“Baby, say something, please,” Steve implores. 

“There won’t be any issues? No fighting? No alpha male bullshit?” she asks. They give her sweet smiles. 

“No bullshit,” Bucky promises.

“No alpha male smackdowns as Nat calls them. We’re past that,” Steve tells her. Hayley mulls this over for a moment. 

“If you hurt me, you will never see me again,” she says quietly. 

“We won’t hurt you, kitten. That’s the last thing we want to do.”

“All we want is to love you and for you to try and love us back, Hayley,” Steve says quietly. “All we need is a chance.”

She lifts her head and looks at the two men who hold her heart. 

“Please don’t hurt me.”

“Never, baby,” Steve whispers, caressing her face, “never.”

“We’d never do anything to hurt you, kitten,” Bucky says reaffirming Steve’s statement. They’re waiting with bated breath for her answer. 

Hayley pushes her fears away. The risk is incredible, but the rewards could be infinite. 

“I want to do this. I want to be your girl.”

The two men hesitate and for a moment Hayley thinks she may have made a fatal mistake, but then they’re suddenly trying to get their arms around her and both men are kissing her face, her head, taking turns with her lips, all while thanking her for the chance. 

“We’ll do right by you, kitten. I promise,” Bucky whispers.

“You won’t regret this, babydoll. Thank you,” Steve purrs. 

============================================================================

Natasha arrives sooner than anticipated and the gun runners are gathered up and, much to the delight of the small island, the head man is taken into custody as well. For an on the fly sting operation this turned out better than Steve could have anticipated. 

But that wasn’t the highlight of the trip to Fiji. 

Currently he, Bucky, and their best girl Hayley are flying back to New York. Hayley is asleep in a seat behind Steve. She agreed to date them both. There’s just one goddamn hiccup…

“Her shoulder is infected.”

“I figured that would happen. Is she running a fever?” Steve asks. He sees Bucky turn around and reach for Hayley. 

“She’s hot to the touch.”

“Don’t wake her, let her rest. We’ll be home in less than an hour. We’ll get her to medical.”

“Will she stay with you?”

“She’ll stay where she wants, Buck. If that’s with you or me or in her quarters, that’s up to her.”

“We could all stay together, Steve. Like you suggested with the apartment.”

“Like you and I used to do when you came back from Wakanda,” Steve says thoughtfully. 

“When did that stop? You crashing at my place or me at yours?” Bucky asks. Steve shakes his head. 

“I don’t know, Buck. Why? You miss cramming into a bed with me to sleep?”

Bucky laughs lightly. 

“No. And yes. You get used to sleeping next to someone...if that had gotten out we’d have been labeled.”

“I know. Things aren’t like they were, Buck. Two guys sharing a bed in an apartment back then was because they were poor, not because they were gay.”

“Or in your case because you were so sick in the winter and I had no other way to keep you warm,” Bucky says. 

Steve nods. 

“You had pneumonia,” he continues. 

“I think I’ve only ever seen you that scared one other time, Buck.”

“I was scared I was going to lose my best friend, you ass.”

“I know.”

“What was the other time?” Bucky asks after a minute. 

“When I found you in Romania at that little apartment. You tried to lie to me and act like you didn’t know who I was.”

Bucky hangs his head. 

“I’ve done a lot of awful shit, Steve. I was afraid you would hate me.”

“I was scared to death you didn’t really remember me, Buck.”

“You never gave up.”

“Til the end of the line, buddy.”

“Til the end of the line,” Bucky repeats. Steve glances over at his friend and sees a little smile on his face. It’s been a long, hard road for Bucky. 

Bucky turns around again.

“Hey, kitten.”

“You two are cute.”

This makes Steve laugh.

“How much did you hear?” he asks. 

“Enough.” She groans loudly.

“It hurts, doesn’t it, doll?”

“Like a bitch.”

“You’re running a fever,” Steve tells her. “We’re almost home and then you’re going to medical--”

“Oh I am, am I?” All snark. 

“You need to have that looked at, doll. Don’t give him shit for it. You know you’re hurt,” Bucky adds. 

“Et tu, Barnes?”

“No _et tu_ , doll. We want our girl to be healthy and happy.”

Steve can’t help but smile at the _our girl_ phrase. 

“You like the sound of that, kitten?” Bucky asks. He looks over at Steve. “She’s smiling.”

“I have a fever. I’m delirious. Where’s Dot, Bucky?”

Steve bellows laughter. He hears Bucky groan and say something (probably a curse) in Russian. 

“I left Dot for you, doll.”

“She’s going to hurt you,” Hayley warns.

“Oh she probably will,” Steve says. Bucky glares at him. 

“You’re lucky you’re flying, punk.”

Bucky turns around in his seat again.

“She’s asleep again."

“I knew we should have rinsed it out,” Steve gripes. 

“That may have made it worse. Fiji water isn’t the cleanest.”

Steve sighs heavily. 

“What if she agreed because she was starting to fall into the fever?” 

Steve’s heart stops. 

“She was okay. She wasn’t...she was okay, Buck,” Steve tells him. He has to believe that was the case, that Hayley knew what she was saying and that it wasn’t from the infection or possible poison that may have been on the blade. 

Neither of them speak the rest of the way back to the compound. Once they land, Bucky immediately unbuckles and goes back to wake up Hayley. Steve follows quickly.

“Hey, babydoll,” Steve says as Bucky undoes her straps. She opens her eyes slowly. She’s disoriented and cringes when she sees them both so close to her. 

“Easy, kitten. It’s okay,” Bucky whispers. “We’re back at base now. You need to go to medical.”

Steve holds his breath, hoping that she remembers what transpired and that she doesn’t try and run off out of fear. 

“I’m so tired,” she mutters. She goes to stand up but her legs give out. Steve catches her and picks her up. 

“Steve, her arm.”

There are red lines highlighting her veins coursing down her arm. Bucky is calling Bruce now. Steve’s only thought is getting Hayley to medical as fast as possible. 

============================================================================

Hayley opens her eyes and looks around. She knows this place. She’s in medical back at the Avenger’s compound. 

She tries to move but there’s a searing pain in her right arm that travels down to her wrist. She’s been stuck with an IV. Even better she’s missing her shirt. She’s in one of those flimsy gowns, the shoulder on her right exposed. 

The goddamn cut from the nasty gun running inbred fucktards. 

“Goddammit,” she mutters trying to move again. It burns and throbs and just hurts like a motherfucker. She feels sweaty and gross on top of everything else. 

She vaguely remembers Steve saying she had a fever. Was it from the knife wound? That would explain why she’s soaked and gross feeling. 

Speaking of Steve where the fuck are he and Bucky? Did she imagine them telling her they loved her? Was it a fever dream? A hallucination dreamt up by her subconscious? 

“Oh god,” she moans. What if none of that was real? What if they found her and she doesn’t know what happened because she was delirious? 

Hayley is panicking. She’s trying to pry the tape off of her arm so she can get out of medical and maybe save herself some goddamn embarrassment…

She hears voices outside the door. 

“It wasn’t poison. The blade was filthy though, so it may as well have been. You’re lucky you got her back in time. I gave her a high dosage round of antibiotics to clear it up. She’s going to have to stay on it for at least a week and then she’s off the roster till I’m sure there’s no traces left of that garbage in her bloodstream. That’ll give her shoulder time to heal. She’s going to have another scar, guys--”

“That’s the least of our concerns,” she hears Steve say. “So long as she’s alright.”

“It may be a concern to her. She’s got a pretty nasty scar on her back. What the hell is that from?” 

Hayley finally recognizes the voice as that of Dr. Banner.

“She was stabbed,” Bucky tells him. 

“With what? A rusty butter knife?” Banner demands. 

“Doesn’t matter,” Bucky says coldly. “She doesn’t like talking about it, she doesn’t want it mentioned--”

“She’s missing a kidney. Somebody needs to mention this,” Banner says sounding agitated. 

“It’s not effecting her is it?” Steve asks. 

“No. Her other kidney is just fine. It’s working normally. She’s healthy other than her current issue. Are you still going to try and tell me there’s nothing going on between the three of you?”

Silence.

“Right. Okay,” Banner says. He sounds like he’s giving up on the guys. And the guys sound like they actually care about her. Is it possible…?

“Can we see her?” Bucky asks. 

“She’s resting.”

“She’s been resting,” Bucky persists. “I want to see her.”

“Look, Bruce, we just spent over an hour with Fury trying to explain to him what the hell we were doing. We just want to see with our own eyes that Hails is okay.”

“Hails,” Banner repeats. “Nothing going on. Nope. Fine. Go see her. Be quiet. If she’s still asleep it’s because her body needs rest. Something you two should look into.”

“Blah blah,” Bucky mutters. 

Hayley is smirking when the door opens. 

“Babydoll!” 

“Hi, kitten.”

They both light up and it makes Hayley feel ridiculously warm and fuzzy inside. 

“Welcome back,” Banner says walking in behind them. “How do you feel?”

“Sweaty.”

“Your fever must have broke, baby,” Steve says, rubbing her leg. 

“Let’s check,” Banner says as he takes her temperature. “Ninety-eight-nine. You’re in range. Better than the one-o-three you were at when you came in. Let’s take a look at your arm,” he says, side-stepping Bucky in the process. Hayley can see that it’s red but the cut is on the back of her shoulder making it damn near impossible for her to actually see it. 

Steve and Bucky are crowding around Banner trying to look. She sees Banner roll his eyes.

“A little room, please,” Banner says to them. Bucky and Steve step back reluctantly. 

Hayley flinches when he touches it.

“It’s going to hurt for a few days. Keep it clean, the stitches will dissolve on their own. You can go when you’re ready,” Banner tells her. 

“What about the antibiotics?” Steve asks. Banner snaps his fingers and smiles.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Good call,” Bucky tells Steve and then turning his attention to Hayley, “how do you feel, kitten?”

“Sore. Tired. Gross.”

This gets chuckles from both men. 

“We’ll get you out of here as soon as Bruce gets back. Where do you want to stay, babydoll?” Steve asks.

Hayley considers this. They’re using the pet names they’ve given her. They’re being openly affectionate, Bucky kissing and holding her free hand, Steve brushing her hair from her face and gently playing with her fingers. Maybe this is real. Maybe this is happening. Gods does she dare to hope?

“Hails?” Bucky says softly. 

“Where are you going to be most comfortable?” she asks.

“Me?” they ask in unison. This makes her smile.

“Yes. Both of you.”

“Wherever you are, doll, I’m happy,” Bucky answers. 

“We could do my quarters. You seem to like that couch,” he says teasing her a bit. 

“It’s a nice couch,” Hayley says defiantly.

“Steve’s works,” Bucky says trying not to laugh. 

“Here we go,” Banner says walking back into the room. “Directions are on the bottle. Keep an eye on that. If it starts to look like infected or if you see those lines darken on your arm get down here pronto.”

“She’s staying with us, we’ll keep an eye on her,” Steve tells him. Banner’s eyes get big.

“Not one word, Bruce,” Bucky warns. “Not one word.”

“I know nothing. What you three do outside of here is up to you,” Bruce says handing Hayley the bottle of pills. 

“What can she take for pain?” Steve asks, ignoring the threat Bucky just made.

“How bad is it on a scale from one to ten?” Banner asks her. 

“I’m alright. Tylenol is fine,” Hayley says quickly. Banner nods his head. 

“You’re free to go. Just remember what I told you.”

“We’ve got it covered,” Bucky tells him. Bruce nods again and leaves the room. 

“One of us can go to your quarters and bring your stuff over,” Steve says. Hayley tilts her head. That sounded...no. It’s a generalized statement, he’s not moving her in. It’s just till she’s healed. They’ll probably only sleep together on occasions. Right?

“I volunteer,” Bucky says with a smirk. 

“I want to do it,” Steve states.

“I’ll do it. I just need enough for tonight,” Hayley intervenes. Steve’s shoulders slump and Bucky looks like she slapped him with a brick.

“Hails, why just tonight?” Steve asks. He’s near pouting and it saddens her to see him like this. 

“We don’t know how this is going to work, do we?” she asks. 

“You stay there. Buck stays there. I stay there. If he needs a break he’s got his place to go back to. If you need a break--”

“What about you?” she interjects. Steve shakes his head no.

“He can go to my place if he wants to step away,” Bucky offers. “But based on the stubborn look on his face he’s going to say he won’t want to.”

Steve flips Bucky off and Hayley can’t help but laugh a little. 

“I’ll make dinner again, kitten. Just for the three of us. Steve and I are grounded till Natasha can convince Fury we weren’t chasing you around the goddamn globe,” Bucky says. 

“I’m not going to complain,” Steve says with a shrug. 

“And you’re okay with this? With sharing your space with the two of us?” Hayley asks Steve. She needs to be sure he’s not just doing this because he feels obligated to.

“For now.”

“No,” she says, shaking her head. “No, we won’t...dinner is fine, but I’ll stay in my own quarters so this doesn’t end in another fight.”

  



End file.
